A lighting unit of this type is disclosed in WO 2008/065030 A1, for example. Said document describes a lighting unit for a vehicle headlight comprising a light-emitting diode device and a metallic housing, which at least partly encloses the light-emitting diode device and which is provided with fixing means for mounting the lighting unit in a vehicle headlight. Said fixing means are configured in such a way that they enable the light-emitting diode chips to be oriented relative to the optical unit of the vehicle headlight. The metallic housing can be connected to a cooling body for cooling the light-emitting diode chips. However, the production of the metallic housing is comparatively complicated and costly.